This year has been head-spinning in many ways…many good ways! But, man, has it just flown by! Time is…fleeting, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show says. The past (in certain terms) is behind us and the future (in certain terms) before us. So where does that leave us?

In the present moment. All we really have is the present. So is it really any wonder that Christmas packages are called presents?

I enjoyed as much of the present moment as possible throughout this year, and I hope the rest of you did, too!

And I know there are other holidays out there. I wish you all the peace and love and joy you also celebrate.

I thank all of you who—in your own, sometimes most personal ways—for helping create a better world for yourselves and everyone else. Many of you perhaps don’t even realize this. Doing so can be as easy as keeping good and positive thoughts in your head…as well as doing the more public acts. The point is, doing good in the world is as easy as doing good for yourself and your immediate circle of influence, because everything affects everything else.

I thank my wife, Laura, for her love and in being the kind and gracious person she is. For staying with me…and for continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank my family—both near and far, nuclear and extended—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all my friends—both close and acquaintance—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all of you who invited me to all the literary events I went to this year. I am ever humbled by your invites! Thank you!

I thank Mandy Pratt for all her efforts and dedication (which continues!) on editing and proofing my short stories. Thank you!

I thank all my writing friends for being who you are, for writing your wonderful blogs, for writing stories that are important to you. For being open and supportive to the rest of us who are not at your levels-of-success (i.e., thanks for not being snooty). Thank you!

Any group or individual I may have missed, it was not intentional. I thank you, too!

To those of us who require a little extra work in various aspects of our lives…I wish us all the very best at becoming and being the best person we can be throughout the rest of our lives!

So, I send out massive amounts of love and peace and joy to all on this day that many of us celebrate for many reasons, not all of them religious.

The other day, while working on my newest manuscript (mss), I came upon some cool synchronicities. You will note on that webpage, I write up one that dealt with France. It just so happens, in my mss I actually am “in France,” but that’s not what I’m getting at.

What had happened was that I had been writing about a character, whose last name was “Morgan.” That name came up in a TV show. No big shakes, right?

But earlier that day, I had been looking at “an item ” (can’t say, cause it revolves around Christmas gifts), one of which was an Adirondack chair. Also on TV that night, a character gave an example to something citing an “Adirondack chair.” To the character, to the show, and quite so to me, all of that reference was “out of character. I found that quite interesting.

Now, there was another instance that same day (three in a row), but I couldn’t get around to writing it down, and had since lost it. But no matter. It was good enough that I just identified the instances, became aware of them. All things are related, in some way, and I like it when things like this happen. It reminds me that not all is as it seems…that there is more than just what we see.

I hope I remember what that third thing was. I almost had it, just now—actually felt it—but it slipped away….